Roadshow eyes US investment

By Amy Su / Staff Reporter

Thu, May 12, 2011 - Page 12

Taiwan is hoping to attract US investment in a one-week roadshow beginning on Saturday, the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said yesterday.

The seven-day roadshow includes three investors conferences in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, with 40 enterprise visits, the council said.

“We hope the roadshow will convince corporations in the US to invest more in Taiwan, as well as build strategic alliances with local companies,” Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) told a media briefing.

The roadshow is targeting investment in five main industries — biotechnology and international medical, green energy and electric vehicles, high technology, culture and creative sector with digital content, and land development and hotels — from related corporations in US, Liu said.

Other than encouraging investment from the US, the roadshow has arranged 40 visits to corporations in the US, including Google, Facebook and Oracle Corp, for participants to tap into their experience, Liu said.

“We expect to be the bridge urging cooperation between the two sides, while helping clients interested in investing in Taiwan to enter Taiwan’s financial market at the soonest,” Citibank Taiwan Ltd (台灣花旗) chairman Victor Kuan (管國霖) said.

This is the third overseas roadshow by the CEPD since the council launched the “Invest in Taiwan” project in August last year. The council led the first roadshow to Singapore in November and held the second one in India in February.

More than 100 participants — including industry representatives and government officials — are participating on this trip, the most among the three roadshows, Liu said.

Liu did not specify the the roadshow’s investment target, but she said the “Invest in Taiwan” project has attracted investment interest worth more than NT$1.1 trillion (US$38.39 billion) in potential capital from the second half of last year to the first quarter of this year.

At a separate forum yesterday, pundits said the government should relax its controls on investments from China to attract more global private equity investors interested in Chinese markets to consider investing more in related Taiwanese companies.

“The government should increase the maximum limit for Chinese corporations to invest in Taiwan from the current limit of 30 percent,” China Development Industrial Bank (中華開發工業銀行) senior vice president Dennis Chiang (江忠亮) told a media briefing.

The government should also clarify the definition of capital investment from China, ruling out investments from Chinese with a company listed in a third country, Chiang said.

Most private investors interested in Taiwanese companies are from Japan, especially in the retail industry, Chiang said.

“The Japanese investors believe more in Taiwan-based companies than China-based ones,” Chiang said.

However, Taiwan should see itself as the core of Greater China instead of limiting itself to the smaller Taiwanese market to lure more investment from abroad, said Tony Luh (陸景鍇), a founding managing director at DFJ DragonFund China (德豐傑龍脈中國基金).